Child Services Coordinator en Divinity Family Services

Position Summary:

The Child Services Coordinator supports the coordination of child services by utilizing the principles of Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) while facilitating collaborative service delivery across systems to support safety, healing and long-term stability for children and youth in foster care.  This subject matter expert assesses children’s needs and develops individualized service plans that support families, kinship caregivers, and case managers in providing long-term, trauma-informed care. This role ensures through service planning and providing guidance that each child’s physical, emotional, educational, and therapeutic needs are identified, documented and addressed in alignment with the agency’s trauma-informed model of care.  The coordinator acts as a bridge between systems and caregivers, including kinship placements, providing hands-on support to navigate resources and overcome challenges while honoring each child’s life story. Strong communication and collaboration are essential to this role, as it interfaces with agency case managers, kinship and foster/adoptive caregivers, DFPS caseworkers, therapists, schools, medical providers, and legal representatives to ensure timely and effective service delivery tailored to each child’s unique circumstances and strengths.

Key Duties:

Child Document Collection and Review:

• Upon licensure, the coordinator will serve as a subject matter expert (SME) in trauma-informed and kinship-focused care, connecting with the home developer, placement coordinator, and assigned Divinity case manager to ensure all child documentation has been received and thoroughly reviewed in preparation for the 30-day Initial Service Plan (ISP).
• The coordinator will communicate directly with the child’s DFPS legal worker and Divinity case manager to identify and address any unique needs of the foster youth, including considerations specific to kinship placements, such as caregiver readiness, existing family dynamics, and cultural or relational context.
• Proactively identify service needs requiring coordination across systems (e.g., medical, mental health, education) and begin to map collaborative service supports early in the process.

Preliminary Service Plan Completion:

• Upon review of the foster youth’s initial placement documents, the coordinator will complete the Preliminary Service Plan within the required 72 hours, ensuring the plan reflects immediate needs and resources tailored to both the child and the caregiver—especially for kinship caregivers who may need additional support navigating systems.

Initial 30-Day Service Plan Coordination and Completion:

• As a SME in child welfare coordination, the coordinator will distribute ISP meeting invitations to all required parties within 14 days prior to the meeting date, ensuring key stakeholders across systems are engaged.
• Lead the completion of the initial service plan meeting and the development of the ISP within 30 days of placement, emphasizing strengths-based, family-informed strategies to meet each child’s therapeutic, educational, and daily living needs.
• Help identify and resolve service delivery gaps through cross-system collaboration, problem-solving, and by centering the child’s voice and lived experience.
• Collaborate closely with the assigned Divinity case manager to provide targeted, practical guidance to both kinship and unrelated caregivers—recognizing that kinship caregivers may require additional support due to limited formal training or unique family challenges.
• Serve as an expert resource for caregivers facing complex or high-need situations, offering trauma-informed strategies and referrals to stabilize placements and promote healing.
• Advocate across service systems to ensure children and families—especially kinship families—receive timely, appropriate, and culturally responsive services.

Collaboration & Community Engagement:

• Actively partner with local service providers, educational institutions, mental health professionals, and grassroots organizations to expand the scope of accessible resources tailored to kinship caregivers.
• Represent the organization as a subject matter expert in regional and state foster care and kinship care forums, sharing insights, data, and success stories that reflect the importance of cross-system integration.
• Work collaboratively with DFPS, school systems, legal advocates, and other stakeholders to improve systemic responses and build more inclusive supports for kinship caregivers.

Reporting & Documentation:

• Maintain comprehensive, accurate documentation of all planning, communication, and service coordination activities associated with each case.
• Ensure timely submission of Preliminary and Initial Service Plans and contribute to tracking outcomes for kinship and non-kinship placements to inform agency practices.
• Support agency data collection and continuous improvement efforts by providing subject matter expertise related to kinship care, cross-system practices, and trauma-informed planning.

Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with at least 2 years of work experience within child welfare.
• Strong understanding of the rules and regulations CPA’s abide by.
• Outstanding verbal and written skills, and experience working with other team members on all levels.
• Preferred Bilingual (English and Spanish based on service area and service population).

Conditions of Employment

Employees must maintain a valid Texas driver’s license and motor vehicle insurance coverage as required by Texas law. In accordance with Texas law, Divinity Family Services (DFS) will conduct criminal background checks on all candidates and reserves the right to conduct random drug screenings during employment. Employees may be required to work weekends or evening hours as necessary to meet the needs of the organization. Employees are required to always keep a functioning cellular phone to ensure availability for on-call and after-hours duties.

The physical demands of the position may require employees to stand, walk, sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; and talk or hear. On rare occasions, employees may be required to lift 30 pounds.

In compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), employees are required to adhere to all applicable federal and state laws, as well as DFS’s policies and procedures, regarding the safeguarding of confidential healthcare information.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Divinity Family Services (DFS) will make reasonable accommodations for qualified employees with disabilities, upon request, unless doing so would cause undue hardship to the organization.

DFS is committed to diversity and inclusion, adhering to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) guidelines. The organization does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic, in compliance with federal, state, and local laws.